Kids and music go together beautifully. Free from pretensions, children play from their hearts. Put that beauty into an international setting -- in th...
The Obama administration should say "yes" to the European Union's (EU's) invitation to do some nation-building here in America while at the same time helping our indispensible ally--Europe--and boosting family incomes.
In the final days of the presidential campaign, President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that it was time to reap a peace dividend as America's wars wind down. Nation-building here at home should, he insisted, be put on the agenda.
President Obama's arrival in Afghanistan and signing of the strategic partnership agreement with President Karzai supposedly represents yet another corner turned in our nearly eleven year (and counting) war.
Failing states are failing states. The difference between over there and over here, however, is that we have been stacking the deck against ourselves.
WASHINGTON -- At a time when the country couldn't be more fixated on cutting spending, a revolution taking place thousands of miles away is presenting...
Given the hierarchical authoritarianism of the Gaddafi government I hope that the NTC will consider working with the civil servants who only worked for his repressive regime because there was no other option.
While I have tremendous respect for those who serve in the military, 21st century citizenship needs to reframe the meaning of nationalism and civic pride as a commemoration of Peace, not War.
Given the corruption and dependency we'll leave in our wake, without an introspective self-critique our policies, America could turn Afghanistan into Central Asia's Haiti.
WASHINGTON — Afghanistan is at risk of a deep financial crisis when foreign troops leave in 2014 if the United States is unable to overhaul its ...
It will not always unite us as a country, or give us a warm and fuzzy feeling inside the way the hunt for bin Laden did, but maybe we can now turn our attention to the pursuit of domestic nation-building.
Given the lack of civil society and any effective national institutions in the country, a post-Gaddafi Libya will face enormous governance challenges.
In February 1865, shortly before the Civil War ended, Congress established "a bureau of refugees, freedmen and abandoned lands" -- a radical attempt at social change by conservative people.
Private military contractors often state that the bulk of their business is not employing guys with guns, i.e., private security contractors, and that...
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton she should have established an "Under Secretary for Development" at the Department of State and shored up that 'command' in her own shop.
Unless the United States is prepared to eternally enforce the conditions of a power-sharing agreement, it should renounce its commitment to spread the legal rights articulated in the Afghan constitution.
The Obama administration needs to modify its "belief about the moral benefit and policy utility of nation-building." You do not have to engage in the grandiose project of nation-building in order to achieve our limited goals.
American congressmen tear their generals apart when fighting stupid wars. The British prefer to avoid embarrassment....
I am the Afghanistan Blogging Fellow for The Seminal and Brave New Foundation. You can read my work on The Seminal or at Rethink Afghanistan. The view...
The Tea Party's real purpose is to prevent change that threatens privileges enjoyed by middle aged, white Republicans, who feel America is under assault by the poor, people of color, gay Americans and immigrants.
There is a disconnect between the prospects of the military surge, which will reach its apogée and then decline starting in mid-2011, and the civilian surge, which would take decades to produce meaningful results.
While there are many things that would be good to do in Afghanistan, there is only one thing that we have to do: Deny it as an operational base for Al Qaeda or other transnational jihadists.
The destruction in Haiti is still fresh. All the bodies have not yet been buried. And the final toll has not yet been counted. But when the darkest ...
An ultra-federalist culture would constantly seek to discover and bridge gaps between local systems for administering justice and the official machinery of the state courts.
We can't afford to build a nation in Afghanistan. We have one reasonable goal there, and everything else, no matter how seemingly noble it may or may not be, is a luxury.
